Chapter 8

  “So, what’s your Path?” Ginny looked up from where she’d been watching Norah. The little girl’s legs were setting a slow pace as they walked down the road, and Ginny was worried that she wouldn’t be able to keep up even that slow pace indefinitely. Mark was looking at her expectantly, his anxiety seeming to have tapered off as they put some distance between them and the car that he’d nearly been dismembered and eaten inside.

  “Hmm?” Ginny asked, and he rolled his eyes. “Your PATH. You obviously picked one, that’s how you killed the Stitch Beast. So, what did you pick?”

  She considered how to respond. When she’d introduced herself as Ginny earlier, he’d seemed like he wasn’t sure if she was just humoring his sister, or if she was crazy. Regardless, it seemed like her literally being a character from a movie hadn’t occurred to him.

  Ginny supposed she couldn’t blame him for that.

  After a few seconds of consideration, she mentally shrugged. The same reason she hadn’t lied about who she was earlier still applied, namely, that she couldn’t think up a plausible lie that would explain herself. Besides, I have a bad feeling that everyone’s going to have bigger and weirder things to worry about than me.

  “My sheet sounds different than yours.” He frowned at that, and she quickly continued before he could interrupt her. “You said your sheet just had your name, race, age, and a place where you could select your Path right?” He nodded, and she shook her head. “My sheet has a lot more on it that.” She mentally called up her character sheet, scanning it over as she briefly described everything that was on it.

  Name: Ginny Christianson

  Race: Human (Story)

  Age: 18 (0)(34)

  Template: Final Girl

  Path: Survivor

  Level: 2

  Health: 172/220

  Mana: 5/170

  UNALLOCATED: 0

  STRENGTH: 10

  REFLEXES: 10

  SPEED: 12

  VITALITY: 11

  ATUNEMENT: 9

  IMAGINATION: 11

  WILLPOWER: 14

  FAITH: 5

  CHARISMA: 11

  AWARENESS: 13

  LUCK: 20

  Conditions: Bruised, Filthy, Blood Drenched, Grace Period

  Abilities:

  Passive:

  Worse Than It Looks (Lvl 3)

  Horror Survivor (Lvl 2)

  Final Girl (Lvl MAX)

  Survivor’s Will (Lvl 6)

  Lucky Charm for the Damned (Lvl 1)

  Unkillable (Lvl 1)

  Active:

  Lucky Strike (Lvl 2)

  Flee (Lvl 1)

  Run it Off (Lvl 1)

  Analyze: (Lvl 1)

  Skills:

  First Aid (Lvl 1)

  Improvised Weapons (Lvl 1)

  Polearms (Lvl 1)

  Running (Lvl 2)

  Short Blades (Lvl 3)

  Swimming (Lvl 1)

  Ginny sighed at the Filthy and Blood Drenched conditions still on her sheet after her efforts with the blanket from the car earlier, though she couldn’t really argue against it. Mark frowned, slowing down enough that even holding Norah’s hand, Ginny started to pull ahead of him.

  “Template… so you have like, two classes? And what’s up with Survivor? That’s not a Path I can choose.” Ginny shook her head in response. “I don’t know. All of the Paths I could pick felt like they were chosen for me specifically. Yours are probably the same. Maybe?” She shrugged, and he frowned.

  “So, once you pick your path…”. He paused and narrowed his eyes at Ginny, “Or whatever, you have stats, and abilities, and skills?” His eyes took on the glazed and distant expression of someone reading a Depths screen and then flickered back to Ginny. “I-I’m gonna pick my Path!” Ginny winced at Mark’s voice echoing into the woods on either side of the road, waving at him to keep quiet. She didn’t want another Stitch Beast attacking while they were out in the open like this.

  ”Okay!? Can you do it quietly?!” She hissed at him, and he took a step back, the defiant expression on his face shifting into embarrassment and confusion. “I, uh… sorry.” He stammered out, looking around into the woods nervously. “I just…”. He trailed off uncertainly. “Aren’t you going to tell me not to?” Ginny rolled her eyes. “Mark. I don’t know how many more Stitch Beasts, or Ravagers, or who knows what else are in these woods. If you can poke the magic blue screen and get something that might help keep you and your sister safe, why would I tell you not to?” He shuffled awkwardly, and gave her a little half-shrug. “I dunno, I just…”. He trailed off, and then frowned at her again. “What’s a Ravager?”

  Ginny sighed and shrugged back at him. “Something bad. That clown, Tryn, is one apparently.” Mark shook his head. “How do you know all this?” He asked her suspiciously. Ginny opened her mouth, closed it, considered, then responded. “I met someone who explained some things. And I have an ability that gives me information on some of what’s happening.” Mark opened his mouth, probably to ask what else she knew about all this, when Norah cut him off.

  “Does it tell you what that is?”

  Ginny blinked and looked ahead at where the little girl was pointing. “Oh. Actually, yes. Kind of.” Ginny stepped in front of the little girl, pushing her hand down gently. Putting herself in front of the kids, she stared at the familiar green outline sending a pale glow onto the asphalt below them.

  There was a Depths Door in the middle of the road.

  ***

  Ginny approached the Depths Door cautiously, having passed Norah to Mark and told them both to stay further back. The two of them were watching from thirty feet back in the direction they’d come from, Mark looking into the dark woods nervously while Norah stared at Ginny with an odd sort of intensity. Tensed and ready to dive to the ground if a giant hand or anything else came flying out of the portal, Ginny focused on the green glow and whispered, “Analyze.”

  Depths Door: This is a portal used by those who are fully incorporated into the Depths System. Open portals may be freely used by any individual who has incorporated the minimum amount of Depths corruption. Closed portals may only be used by designated individuals, or those fully incorporated into the Depths System.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  This portal is: Open.

  The description for the portal was the same as the one that the Ravager who made the Stitch Beasts had appeared out of, with the exception that this portal was described as “open”. It looked identical, with no visual indication of it being open.

  Maybe everyone gets the Analyze ability or something like it, and the Depths just expects you to check every glowing magic portal you find. Ginny frowned, relaxing the harpoon slightly as she studied the portal, before glancing back over her shoulder at the kids watching her nervously.

  “I’m going to look inside. If I don’t come back out, just…” Or if this thing just disintegrates me when I touch it. She trailed off, not sure what to tell them to just do if she disappeared on them. “Just, uh, go back to the car, cover yourselves up, and wait for your dad to come back.” Eventually settling on what might have been the least horrible of horrible options, Ginny waited for them to nod, then turned back and stepped up to the portal.

  Okay, so just… in we go. She thought about just sticking her head in, but the idea of her head being in an entirely different place from the rest of her body, through a portal that might close at any time with her halfway through it, convinced her to take a deep breath, and step through the portal.

  Her foot came down on a floor made of rough looking wooden boards. There was an almost comically loud creak as she shifted her weight forward, and Ginny rapidly looked around, gripping the harpoon tightly as she waited to see if a Stitch Beast or something similar was going to jump out and tear her face off. The room she’d ended up in was confusingly non-descript and plain looking for somewhere she’d entered via walking through a glowing magical portal.

  The walls and floor were both made of roughly cut and crudely nailed together boards, more like what you’d see in a shed or a barn. The room she’d walked into was small, probably only ten feet to a side, with an open archway that led further in wherever she was. A couple of boards nailed to the wall formed simple looking and crooked shelves, and one wall had a line of rusty coat hooks set at various heights. Aside from that, the room was completely bare, and the only light spilled in from the archway leading further in.

  Ginny glanced behind her, and let out a breath of relief when the familiar glow of the Depths Door hadn’t vanished when she went through it. She thought about bringing the kids in now, since nothing had immediately tried to dismember her when she stepped in, but after a second’s consideration, she decided to poke her head into the next room first. After her first step in that direction was greeted by another loud squeak from the floorboards, she froze again. Once again, no monster jumped out, but a low murmur of voices came from around the corner of the archway.

  “You said monsters couldn’t come in here!?” A young male voice hissed out in the unfortunate kind of whisper that carried to an entire room.

  “My dear patron, I said nothing of the sort. I assured you that no monsters would come in here. The beasts of the Depths, frightening and vicious though they may be, possess a sort of low instinctual understanding of certain rules. One of those rules is they would be ill advised to try to force their way into a Shop that is currently being staffed, such as our current locale.” The voice that answered spoke at a normal volume, but with a strange, wet sound to their voice, like they had their mouth full. Their voice was also male, but older, with a sort of clipped and formal tone to their words.

  “Regardless, there is no cause for alarm, in this case. Rather than a monster, we find ourselves in the company of a fair maiden, in need of the security, sustenance, and superlative shopping experience that can be provided here!”

  The other voice responded after a moment, still in the loudest possible whispers. “A maiden? A fair maiden? Are you saying a cute girl just walked in!?” At that point, Ginny poked her head around the corner, opening her mouth to announce herself to what didn’t sound like a monster, at least, and instead ended up just stopping and staring.

  The room beyond the archway was the same unfinished wooden boards but was much larger than the previous room. Most of it was just as empty as the previous room, with more bare shelves and empty rusty hooks. On the left side of the room, a long board extended out from the wall to form a sort of countertop bar. The light that filled the room came from what looked like an oil lantern, flame flickering and casting shadows into the corners. Next to the lantern, two figures stared back at her. Standing on the customer side of the counter, a tall and skinny man, who looked like he was a few years older than Ginny took a quick step book when she stepped around the corner.

  “Oh shit, she’s gone full Carey, and she has a freaking HARPOON!” Ginny ignored him, her attention focused on the second figure, who was seated behind the counter.

  A full-on tuxedo suit, with a collar wide enough to accommodate a thick and round head, without even a hint of a neck. Said head stood out not just for its size and shape, but also for being bright green, with a waxy sheen to it. Perched on the crown of the round head, a fancy looking top hat stood perfectly straight, a green silk ribbon wrapped around the brim. Below said brim, a pair of beady eyes, one of them distorted by a gold rimmed monocle covering it, regarded her calmly. A lipless mouth opened in the rind of the creature’s face, and Ginny caught a brief glimpse of a red and pulpy mass, with no movement to indicate a tongue forming the words coming out.

  “Welcome, my dear lady! No need for your weapon here, I assure you. This is a proper and civilized establishment.” The talking watermelon in a tuxedo and top hat stared at her.

  Ginny stared back at the talking watermelon in a tuxedo and top hat.

  “Are either of you going to eat a couple of kids if I bring them in here?”

  “Huh?” The man in front of the counter responded, still eying her blood-soaked appearance nervously. The watermelon merely smiled and shook its head, which involved its entire body shaking back and forth.

  “Okay, cool. Be right back.” Ginny retreated back around the corner, and back out the Depths Door.

  Poking her head out, she caught sight of the two kids waiting for her back on the road. They’d crept closer to the Depths Door in the short amount of time she’d been gone, and when her head appeared out of it, Mark stumbled backwards with a shout of alarm. Norah just stared at her with wide eyes.

  “Okay, it’s okay. There’s no monsters in here.” Ginny gestured them forward, and while Mark hesitated, still eyeballing the Depths Door distrustfully, Norah immediately started marching forward, the small girl dragging her reluctant brother behind her. Her pace didn’t even slow slightly as she approached the portal, and disappeared through it, and Ginny raised an eyebrow at Mark as he continued to be dragged in after her. Seeing the expression on her face, his cheeks flushed with either embarrassment or annoyance, and he practically jumped through the portal, nearly bumping into Norah on the other side.

  Once they were in, Ginny quickly ushered them into the occupied room, where both children stopped and stared at the melon behind the counter, Mark with mouth hanging open, and Norah with the same wide-eyed intensity that Ginny was starting to think she regarded everything with. The melon tipped its top hat to them.

  “Ah, the fair lady returns, with additional customers in tow. Splendid, a much-appreciated gesture of customer loyalty, and one I shall cherish as much as I cherish all my interactions with my beloved customers.” The melon cleared a throat that Ginny didn’t even think it actually had, then continued in a slightly more restrained tone. “Ah, but as I mentioned earlier, there is no need to have weapons drawn here. You are, if not completely safe, then at the very least significantly safer here, than you would be at virtually any other location on your planet.”

  The tall young man next to the counter nodded. “Yah, it’s like a sanctuary zone, pretty standard stuff, magically reinforced pacify shit, you know?” The melon frowned at the man. “It is nothing of the sort. Any monsters that have made their way into the area will instinctually avoid Depths Doors. The ones that manage to wander in regardless will be swiftly dealt with, and the ones that are strong enough to willingly ignore that instinct will not appear this early on.” The melon continued to frown at the young man. “Honestly, my interactions with you, as much as I cherish them dear customer, have left me gravely concerned for your people’s immediate future in the coming days.”

  Ginny cleared her throat at this point, drawing the two’s attention back to her. “Right, hi. Could you explain just what’s going on here? The last Door like that I saw had an extremely terrifying man with four arms and a habit of sending monsters out to try and eat me, so just a little reassurance that nothing like that is going to happen here would be great.” She glanced down at the harpoon in her hand, then spread her arms wide. “As to the harpoon, I don’t exactly have anywhere to put it away, if you haven’t noticed.”

  The melon man’s eyes widened, and his lipless mouth turned up in a smile. “Ah, you mean to say dimensional or conceptual storage are not commonly available here! Most excellent!” He paused, his smile dimming slightly. “Well, actually less so for you and your people, the indication of a lack of magical and scientific dimensional manipulation further reinforces the likely grim prospects awaiting your species.” He shrugged, the sleeves of the tuxedo he wore flapping like they were empty even as he moved them somehow. “But an excellent prospect for my own humble self, and all other shopkeepers, planets without native dimensional storage capabilities are always big spenders to acquire the convenience.”

  “What, like bags of holding? Or an inventory system? That would be pretty awesome, melon man.” The tall man leaned onto the counter excitedly, and the melon turned back to him. While they discussed things that Ginny didn’t even remotely understand, she took advantage of the distraction to try doing something new, and activate one of her abilities without saying anything. Analyze, she thought, focusing intently on the melon behind the counter.

  Name: Dapper Dan the Melon Man (Rinixas)

  Race: DiploMelon (Tickat: Repressed)

  Age: 31(0)(832)

  Path: Shopkeeper (Fusileer: Repressed)

  Analyze has leveled up! Now level 2!

  Ginny frowned, still staring intently at the melon. His sheet was... weird. It read more like a person than a monster, like hers, or what little she’d been able to see of Mark’s. The way certain things like Race and Age had a second thing listed for them was the same as parts of her own sheet.

  Name: Ginny Christianson

  Race: Human (Story)

  Age: 18 (0)(34)

  Template: Final Girl

  Path: Survivor

  Shaking his head again at the other man, the melon turned back to her and smiled again. “My apologies, my dear customer. I consider it a point of a professional pride that I attempt to ensure all my customers are properly informed before making any purchases, and your people seem to have some very… odd misconceptions about the Depths. But!” He held up a sleeve, and Ginny noticed a curled and leafy vine poking out of the cuff as he continued. “That is no reason to be remiss in my manners. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dapper Dan the Melon Man, merchant extraordinaire, here to provide any supplies and equipment that you will doubtlessly find yourself in need of in these trying times.”

  Dapper Dan executed a surprisingly graceful looking bow, one vine curling over his chest as his whole torso and head that leaned forward. “Simply put, I am a shopkeeper, and this is my shop.” Ginny glanced around at the bare shelves, then back at the melon.

  “You don’t seem to have much for sale, Dapper Dan.” She narrowed her eyes slightly. “Or… Rinixas?” She sounded out the strange and harsh sounding name without any way of knowing if she was pronouncing it correctly.

  The melon froze, still bent over in a bow. Ginny shifted her grip on her harpoon subtly, watching the strange being warily. After a moment, the melon shuddered, and then flopped back onto the stool he was sitting on.

  “Well shit. Ain’t that a pleasant surprise.” The melon’s tone and manner of speaking had changed entirely, the formality and prose-like manner replaced with a rougher sounding and deeper voice. The man leaning on the counter stared at the melon confused, as he grabbed the top hat off of his head, snorted at it, and tossed it on the floor behind the counter.

  “Uh… Dapper Dan? Are you alight, man?” The melon snorted in response, glowering at the tall man. “Shuddup, kid. Name’s Rinaxis, not ‘Dapper Dan’. Stupid casting by committee.” Rinaixs attempted to crane his neck to look down at himself, a task made impossible by his lack of a neck. He eventually settled for staring at one of the vines poking out of his sleeve. “Still a melon though. Damn it.” He let out a wet sounding sigh, vines reaching under the counter and fumbling for something.

  “Right, here’s what I’m gonna do. First, we’re gonna see if I can ferment the inside of my literal gourd,” Rinaxis produced a glass bottle filled with a deep green liquid that bubbled slightly, one vine wrapping around a top and unscrewing it.

  “Then, we’re gonna sit down and I’m gonna explain some things to you that you’re not gonna like.” Rinaxis saluted them with the bottle, before tipping it back and pouring liberally into his mouth in what looked like a very practiced motion.

  “Cause unfortunately, I wasn’t wrong when I said it before.” The disgruntled melon slammed the bottle down on the counter with a loud clank that echoed through the mostly empty room.

  “You all are completely screwed.”